Raveena Aulakh of the Toronto Star worked for a week in a Bangladesh clothing factory. She talks about the experience with BuzzFeed.
Raveena Aulakh.
Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star / Getty Images
Raveena Aulakh, the global environment reporter for the Toronto Star, wrote a powerful story last month about her brief experience working in a clothing sweatshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where her boss was, stunningly, a 9-year-old girl named Meem.
The native of Chandigarh, India, who moved to Canada in 2006, secured the weeklong job through a cabbie she met in Dhaka on a previous assignment — it was a tough get because the city's biggest factories dramatically increased their security and screening processes after the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza in April. He told the owner of the garment factory that Aulakh was his wife's cousin and needed a fresh start. Wearing the same two outfits and oiling her hair, she managed to blend in for the four days she was there.
Her firsthand account, centered around the 9-year-old girl she worked for, provided an incredibly unique and compelling glimpse into how much of the world's clothing is made and by whom, in a year when such issues are drawing more attention than ever before. Aulakh, who is in her 30s and has worked at the Star since 2008, talked with BuzzFeed about how she thought of the story and made it happen, including the inspiration she drew from famed investigative reporter Nellie Bly.
After the Rana Plaza collapse in April, editors at the Star [were] talking about taking a deep look at the garment industry but we wanted to do it as differently as we could and working in a factory, as opposed to interviewing garment workers, sounded like a decent idea. We decided to see if it could happen.
Meem, the 9-year-old girl.
Raveena Aulakh / Toronto Star / Getty Images
No comments:
Post a Comment